Prayers of gratitude and intercession

From sleepy Antakiya Mennonite Church in rural Kodopali, India, to Iglesia Hermanos Menonitas Concordia in bustling Asuncion, Paraguay to the open-walled gathering place of the Mennonite Church in Ntale, Uganda, to congregations in North America and Europe with generations-long followers of Jesus, Anabaptist-Mennonites celebrated becoming part of God’s bigger picture this Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday. 

Creativity and communication skills unleashed 

“I had the opportunity to serve and celebrate Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday with a church full of farmers – just like the poster image. I saw their excitement about a good harvest. We sang joyfully and danced gracefully as expressions of worship to the Lord. Their patience extended from their cooking before the rooster’s crow in the cold pre-dawn, to listening attentively to Scripture reflections and testimony sharing,” says Richard A. Rancap.  

“Celebrating Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday (AWFS) far away from home made me more appreciative of becoming a part of God’s bigger picture because the hospitality made me feel at home. AWFS is not hard to observe when the people in the mosaic are compelled by the love of the Lord.” 

Mission Service Department director Richard A. Rancap travelled for two days to celebrate an AWFS weekend with the multidialectal mountain congregation Dupax Del Norte, Nueva Vizcaya, Luzon, Philippines. (Congregation members speak Bungkalot, Ibaloi, Ilocano, Kanakanaey and Kalanguya.) 

“Looking at the AWFS poster I wondered, if those tiny parts of the mosaic could only talk, what would they tell? How do they feel being surrounded by other shapes and colours?” 

Focusing on the theme “Mosaic: Becoming a Part of God’s Bigger Picture,” the members realized that their roles are to talk to God, care for the creation, share the good news and strengthen the church. 

“This experience unleashed the congregation members’ creativity and intrapersonal and interpersonal communication skills. Their listening skills were activated and they practiced traditional dance and songs in the service,” says Richard A. Rancap.  

Although the congregation had not been aware of the event before, with only a day’s notice, they put together 17 activities for their 66 attendees (18% youth, 27% children, 55% adult). 

On Saturday evening, the elders wrote the verses from the four Scripture passages onto coloured hearts.  

In Sunday school, youth and adults divided into groups. Each meditated on the verse and then had opportunity to share. “Some were nervous while reading the verse but many confessed that the verse was exactly speaking on their personal experience. They were thankful for the lessons they learned about being a part of God’s bigger picture,” says Richard A. Rancap. 

Inspired by the testimonies from the resource package, the sermon proclaimed that the Lord who draws his people into a global mosaic is the Lord who acts (Job 42), the Lord who is thoughtful (Psalm 8), the Lord who cares (John 10) and the Lord who calls (Ephesians 4).  

To remember brothers and sisters from different parts of the world, members wore traditional costumes from the Middle East, Hawaii, Texas, China, Indonesia, Tagalog, Ifugao and Ibaloi.  

In the afternoon, they held a Bible study in a house; many from the community attended. 

During the evening service, 12 members spontaneously gave a testimony and posted it on the heart-shaped mosaic: 

• A pastor was healed of his sickness and God helped him during struggles.  
• A woman was able to attend AWFS 2024 because her employer gave a day off on weekends.  
• A man who was questioning God and was blessed by the story of the life of Job. 
• A man is thankful on his 55th birthday for God’s faithful provisions. 
• Ephesians 4:2 taught a woman to correct her behaviour. 
• A man is thankful God has chosen him to be a part of God’s family. 
• God remains faithful, healing a family of their sickness.  
• A woman who reflected on Ephesians 4:12 wonders what spiritual gift she has.  
• A man confessed his need for prayer to totally abandon alcoholism.  
• A woman sang a song of thankfulness to the Lord for her spiritual journey. 
• John 10:14-16 challenges a woman to share the gospel with others. 

One member testified that morning transformed a memory from sadness to joyfulness. She contributed a traditional gown from the Middle East. She obtained the beautifully designed dress decades ago in traumatic circumstances. When she arrived in the Middle East as a domestic helper, she discovered she had been cheated by the immigration agent and had no working visa. Her employer overworked her, underfed her and was violent while keeping her passport so she couldn’t leave. After 20 months, God answered her prayers to escape and she returned to the Philippines. This morning, the gown was a testimony to the goodness of God. 

After the testimonials, the congregation divided into groups to pray for the requests in the worship resource.  

“Without the Lord, we are simply a club focussing on personal interest; perhaps ‘God’s bigger picture’ would be a filtered selfie. But for becoming a part of God’s bigger picture, our prayer is “May Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven,” says Richard A. Rancap.  

Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday 2024 photos:

Add your pin to the celebration map 

“Dalam Yesus Kita Bersaudara…”  

In Jesus Christ, we are one family. Will you celebrate with us? 

Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday is an opportunity to remind our communities of faith that we are all part of one body made up of many tribes, languages and nations (Revelation 7:9).  

The worship resource package makes it possible for every local congregation to join in shared worship, in spirit, in their own time, own place and in their own way.  

We want to share your celebration with the family by adding your location to the celebration map. 

Please send the following to info@mwc-cmm.org: 

• a) the name of your congregation 
• b) the address of your congregation’s worship gathering place 
• c) your church’s website URL (if applicable) 
• d) (optional) Tell us your story: Will you have a special speaker from another part of the world? Will you sing songs from the Assembly songbook? Will you practice the children’s activity? Will you have any other special activities to celebrate being part of the body of Christ in the Anabaptist tradition? 

MWC invites a special offering to be taken for the global Anabaptist church community on Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday. One way to think about this offering is to invite every member to contribute the value of one lunch in their own community to support the networks and resources of our global Anabaptist church family. Sacrificing one lunch is our humble way of giving thanks to God, and supporting the on-going ministry of God through the church.

This gift of “one lunch” per person once a year is something that all MWC members can do. Some people have resources to give much more than this, and should be encouraged to do so. Others with more scarce resources might be encouraged to hear that the Executive Committee of the Mennonite World Conference, with members from every continent, is confident that most adults all around the world can give the equivalent of one lunch per year for the work of the global church.

Here are some ideas on how to plan for an offering in your congregation.

• Plan for One Lunch offerings to be given in a special basket at the front, or culturally appropriate lunch containers during the worship service.
• Plan for a shared congregational meal together before or after worship on Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday. 
  • This could be “potluck”, with each family bringing big dishes of food to share, including an offering basket for MWC with the meal.
  • Each family could bring a prepared packed lunch. These packed lunches are then available for auction or for purchase or donation to take home or eat together after worship. 
• Plan for a time of shared fasting and praying for the global church during a mealtime before or after worship on Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday, and include an offering for MWC during that time, for at least the value of the meal that is not being eaten.

Funds that are gathered through this special offering in each congregation can be sent directly to Mennonite World Conference (find ways to give at mwc-cmm.org/donate). Or, these funds can be sent to your national church office, clearly designated for Mennonite World Conference and indicated as an Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday offering. You can ask that they pass the funds on to MWC.

• Latin American Anabaptist churches worship in multiple languages: Spanish, German, Portuguese and several Indigenous languages. Each language group has their own worship style. 
• Many Latin American congregations have an informal and flexible worship style, with lots of singing, time for testimonies and prayers, and time to chat after worship.  
• Spanish-speaking churches often sing with guitar, percussion and electric keyboard accompaniment; with “gusto”; more likely in unison than in parts; and projecting the words instead of using a hymnbook. 

Testimonies from Latin America

The Bible includes lots of books that were written before, during and after the coming of Jesus, but his story does not end there; God is still working and continues to impact people’s lives. 

The ways in which God works are mysterious, and on many occasions, we must be patient to glimpse a small part of the great purpose that God has. In this sense, and although I still do not understand the magnitude of the Lord’s thought, I can testify to God’s grace and goodness in the midst of circumstances that seem to be negative, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been one of the events that has marked the history of humanity in recent years. 

During the time of quarantine and mandatory social distancing, digital platforms were the means to strengthen relationships between faith communities. This was the case of the relationship between IMCOL (Mennonite church of Colombia) and AMG (association of Mennonite congregations in Germany), where through monthly Bible studies we reflected together on how the biblical texts spoke to each one of us as followers of Christ. From these online conversations, the AMG invited me to apply to participate as a Mennonite youth delegate at the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Karlsruhe, Germany. 

Frankly, at first, I did not know what I could contribute to that Assembly, considering that the representation of Colombians was small and that of Mennonites even smaller. However, as the days went by, as I got to know more participants, I was able to see that the Mennonites represented a milestone in the history of the church, since we are recognized for the work we carry out in matters of justice, peace and reconciliation.  

In this sense, I felt accepted and encouraged to continue participating as a Mennonite, understanding that I belong to a local and global church that seeks to build bridges for peace, amid a context marked by violence. I also had the possibility of actively participating in an ecumenical meeting, where despite being a young Latina woman who is not ordained, I was able to dialogue with bishops, reverends and theologians from different countries. 

This experience opened my perspective, allowing me to understand the great wealth of opportunity that exists in interdenominational and international dialogue, the big picture of God at work in the world. Each individual person makes an essential contribution to building up the body of Christ, coming out of the social, cultural and political context in which each person is immersed. As a young Latina Mennonite woman from Colombia, I too had something to contribute. 

Testimonies from Latin America

Creation is immense, an extremely large painting. A quick glance from a distance shows us a single painting; however, when one approaches and observes very closely, we discover that this apparently single painting is made up of millions of tiny squares, and I am one of those tiny squares.  

I am an integral part of that great mosaic of God. Being part of God’s mosaic gives me security because in it I am spiritually contained and protected. 

The Apostle Paul said that the church is like the body, composed of many distinct parts, and all together the various parts form the whole body. Each part is important, even the little finger.  

The global Anabaptist family is the body of Christ, made up of many members, and all together we form a whole unit that is the big and beautiful picture of God.  

The first time I participated in an MWC Assembly was in 1984, in Strasbourg, France. I was a young leader then, and because it was my first experience, I understood very little about the significance of this one event. It was a meeting of our family scattered around the world. It was a party, where we celebrated with brothers and sisters from other parts of the world. Despite the cultural and language barriers, there was a great connection made visible in our shared worship, greetings or just a smile. 

For me, this experience with MWC is like what Proverbs 4:18 says: “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.” The different events and relationships in MWC lead me to a better understanding that I am a part of the big picture of God.  

This understanding moves me to think and pray for our family scattered throughout the world. Their well being and their pain are also mine. I am reminded that I must not be selfish and think only about my part of the world, because beyond my world there are many other worlds that are also part of the great picture of God.  

That picture of God could also be compared to a building. When one stops and looks from a distance one observes a beautiful building, but as we get closer, we realize that this building is made up of thousands of parts. Some parts are large blocks like the pillars, and other parts are as tiny as the valve on the water tap. If that valve were to fail, we would immediately realize its importance and as quickly as possible we would look for a solution before the whole building is impacted. The large pillars and the tiny valves are all important to make a beautiful building. 

I want to see my life inside this immense picture of God. Perhaps I am only a tiny member, a small cell in this body. But I know that I am an equally vital part, so that God’s mosaic is complete and beautiful.